The Signs of World Politics
Not long ago I was talking with a man about various stories in the Bible. After a while, he suddenly said, “Wouldn’t it have been exciting to live in Bible times?” My immediate response was, “Sir, we are living in Bible times.” When he asked what I meant, I pointed out that we are living in a time when ancient biblical prophecies are being fulfilled all around us before our very eyes. These signs indicate that we are living in the season of the Lord’s return.
So far on our series on the topic, “Jesus is Returning Soon,” I spent the first few segments in this series presenting biblical evidence that, although we cannot know the date of the Lord’s return, we can know the season. The reason we can know the season is because God has given us signs to watch for.
Now we will take a look at yet another category of end times signs.
Nuclear Weapons
The fifth category of signs are those that pertain to world politics. Speaking of the end times, Jesus said in Luke 21: “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars, and upon the earth dismay among the nations. Men will faint from fear over the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” To me, that’s a description of the splitting of the atom; the development of nuclear power.
Look at it again. It says “the powers of the heavens will be shaken,” and “men will faint from fear.” That’s what’s been going on ever since the first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945. People have been building bomb shelters, storing up food, and being concerned about the possibility of a nuclear exchange. Books are being published that show that if the nuclear button is ever pushed hundreds of millions would die instantly and those left alive would envy the dead.
People think today the Russians are not dangerous anymore. The Soviet Union has collapsed, and Communism is dead. Well, let me tell you something, the danger is even greater today. The danger is greater because the Russian leaders are determined to reestablish their nation as the world’s greatest superpower.
They are currently expanding their borders to encompass all the territory that was lost when the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s. They are doing everything possible to establish their dominance over the Middle East.
And then, of course, there is the ominous threat of Islam that rushed in to fill the power vacuum when Communism collapsed. We are now threatened on all sides by a radical theology of violence that relies on suicide bombers.
Adding to the fear is the rapid spread of nuclear technology, making it possible for outlaw states to acquire atomic weapons. The result of all these developments is that the world is tottering on the brink of nuclear disaster.
Pattern of World Politics
But, nuclear weapons are not the only sign on the world political scene today. We also have the sign of the pattern of world politics. Yes, the Bible prophesies that in the end times there will be a certain pattern of world politics that will come together. For example, it says in Matthew 24 that in the end times there will be wars and rumors of wars, and we’ve had that constantly for 60 years, ever since the end of World War II.
Did you know, for example, that we’ve had an average of 40 wars going on all over the world at any given time since the end of World War II? Not only nation against nation, but also kingdom against kingdom, which is a reference to civil wars like the ones that have raged in the Balkans, Southeast Asia, and throughout Africa.
Another part of the end time world political pattern is the uniting of Europe into a European confederation. This is prophesied in Daniel 2 and 7. This prophecy has been fulfilled before our very eyes as 27 nations in Europe have surrendered their sovereignty to produce the new world super-power called the European Union.
And, as I mentioned before, the Bible speaks of an Eastern power sending an army of 200 million to the Middle East. One nation today — China — could easily do that. The Bible also speaks of a nation to the uttermost parts of the north, namely Russia, and it says that nation will come down against Israel. Russia today is one of the most Anti-Semitic nations on earth, and it is closely allied with the Arab enemies of Israel.
Finally, the Bible speaks of Israel existing in the end times.
Never before have all these parts of the end time world puzzle come together. Never! Now, they have coalesced for the first time. This pattern of world politics is a sure sign that we are living in the season of the Lord’s return.
In the ninth and last part of this series proving the fact that we are now living in the season of the Lord’s return, I will present the greatest of the end times signs — Israel.
